Let’s Buy Saab…

The first clue that I was should have been that it was not Volkswagen. I am a passionate nut about VW. I never owned a Saab. Sidetracked emotionality was not part of my desire.

Even though I have never pined for a Saab, I have been in many of them over many years. Free wheeling, great safety, early front wheel drive. Clearly, this was a car built by people who loved what they were designing. It may not have tweaked my motoring DNA, but it tweaked plenty of others.

So, no one seems to be able to make a deal to buy Saab. A Chinese company has bought some of the technology that the company has been known for, but GM, Saab’s current owner, finds it financially wiser to shutter the company than figure a way to keep it alive.

Okay, GM, here’s the deal. Since no one else seems to want to pull this off, I want to try. Give it to me. I am sure that giving it to me is no worse than shuttering it from a financial point of view: you give all the contingent liabilities away with the company, making your loss less than shuttering. You give away the buildings, the taxes for those buildings, the security for those buildings, and all the issues that shuttering would leave on your balance sheet.

I think this is a good company, with good people and an above average automobile. I think it could be iconic again. Unhampered by the need to be average and careful to not tip the mother ship, Saab could do what it did in the 60′s and 70′s, make interesting, funky, well engineered automobiles. Not Tatas and not Mercedeses, iconic Saabs.

I am certain that there are enough people in the world who would agree and who would invest…..take a gamble with their skills and/or their money.

Especially the folks from Western Sweden, whose jobs and reputations are at stake.

Why don’t you petition the city of Schenectady to help you and you can open a maunfacturing plant in the city and employ some of the people who are really struggling to survive. Somehow I think the 4500 workers in Sweden will be ok!

I agree with your feelings towards Saabs, and I don’t think we’re alone. You appreciate that they may be a little quirky, maybe even use the word “neat”. However, they just never stirred enough emotion to actually shell out a good chunk of change for an overall average car.

It is an absolute shame to end Saab.I have driven them for 30yrs,and see their characteristics disappear during the last 20yrs,into “just another car” GM has no intention of selling saab as it would be competing with the new Opel Insignia here in europe.I notice the options on some models include turbo charging.IN fact it is the new 95

GM has killed Pontiac’s Fiero (a great two (2) seater auto) which had only a few design flaws (they loaded it with every creature comfort they had and hope you did not have a flat, as the damaged tire would not fit in the car)and the Queen Corvette felt challenged by it. I had a similar car that I am betting it was based on, the Fiat X19 and would have purchased the Fiero if it had not had all the CRAP they loaded on the base unit.

GM has killed Saturn, which used an innovated production technique to actually work with what the end customer wanted (served the consumer).

It was not until this past month when looking into a car for a relative that I found out how STUPID GM is in the offering of options on their product lines. Cadillac has always had innovative products first, Like the Side Mirrors Blind Spot Alert ($400) which illuminates the side mirror when an object is detected in the blind spot, or the Lane Departure ($400) which alerts the driver that the auto is about to cross a driving lane if the directional signal has not been used. There are many other SAFETY features which are only offered on CERTAIN Models of CERTAIN Manufacturing lines even though the options would contribute more to safety than side airbags ($1,000) which are standard and serve nothing more than a Feel Good for the buyer.

It is Ironic that I manufacture of a machine that serves the auto industry can be sued in an injury case of an autoworker, if they had made a product with a safety feature that would have diminished the injury previously and had not implemented it in machines manufactured after.

Saab will survive, as it is their past intellectual property that GM acquired when they purchased the company. What GM could not purchase is the innovative spirit that the people of Sweden have, Travel to Europe and see the vehicles that are on the roads everyday. GM management is on the too big to Fail methodology, Best wishes to the Saab successor in 2010.

Ah, Michael…I disagree. And, likewise, Mr. Barber. I own a Saab. It is anything but an average meat and potatoes vehicle. It’s well above average combining luxury, personality, and safety. I just drove my 9-5 Aero through the blizzard in Vermont this weekend and emerged unscathed. Nary a slip or slide. Saab is the finest vehicle I’ve driven and worth the money.

Saab is, indeed, iconic. Sign me on for the adventure: let’s bring Saab to the Capital Region. Jobs for many and a much needed infusion of money and self-esteem for northeastern NY.

If there’s anyone zany enough to actually endeavor to undertake the bureaucratic hurdles of such an adventure, it’s you, with the support of the community behind you. But that’s not the whole story. Running a large automotive company is not just setting up a building and getting it started up, as if it were a convenience store, even if its in a reduced production capacity. Not another Wal-Mart that can hire just anyone. That would be as monumental to Schenectady as the establishment of G.E. or Proctor’s, and it would require a similar amount of dedication and technical, scientific and organizational planning and expertise.

Amazing idea, but are you positing it as a concept of how to answer an unresolved question, or as something you anticipate could become a reality? Because if your answer is the latter in any serious way, that will require one heluva game plan.

I own a 2005 Saab with over 106,000 miles on the odometer. It is the most reliable car I have ever owned. With one exception, my husband and I have ALWAYS bought GM vehicles. We both grew up in households with nothing but GM cars. GM used to stand for quality and reliability. I have been disgusted by GM’s complacency and mismanagement for a few years now — not just because of what has happened more recently.

By the way, my trusty Saab is a 9-2x, a joint project between Saab and Subaru. So, GM, thanks for the $1,000 loyalty voucher, but I won’t be needing it. I plan on keeping my “Saabaru” for a long time to come. And, if I can’t buy a Saab, my next car will be a Subaru.

I own a 2001 Saab 9-5 Aero. The 2003 with aluminum suspension upgrades, was a notch better. Try to find a DOHC 2.2L 4 cylinder turbo, with balance shafts, inter-cooler and coil over plug ignition that generates 260 plus lb.ft. of seemingly limitless torque, effortlessly spooling you from 30 mph – 120 mph, like a Saab. Zipping along at warp speed, you and three other full sized adults only notice the mileposts blurring by as you relax in 1st class accommodations, cosseted by fine Elmo hides.

Want to see where the company went. Check the all “new” 2010 Cadillac SRX with its Saab inspired 2.8L turbocharged engine, isolated subframes, ventilated discs and Haldex All-Wheel-Dive. All the stuff Saab should have been blessed with in 2006. Raped and pillaged, but not forgotten. Viking karma?